Wet strength is a desirable attribute of many disposable sanitary tissue products that come into contact with aqueous fluids during use, such as napkins, paper towels, household tissues (for example, facial and/or toilet tissue), disposable hospital wear, etc. In particular, it is often desirable that such sanitary tissue products have sufficient wet strength to enable their use in a moistened or wet condition. However, sanitary tissue products containing temporary wet strength additives, such as toilet tissue, must be capable of decaying in a relatively short amount of time so that they do not clog sewage systems and/or septic tanks.
Accordingly, the use of temporary wet strength additives in sanitary tissue products requires balancing sufficient wet strength of the sanitary tissue product during use with the ability of the sanitary tissue product to decay rapidly and effectively in an aqueous environment after use. In particular, there is a need for sanitary tissue products that maintain a greater percentage of their dry strength when they are first wetted, while, on further and/or subsequent exposure to water and/or other aqueous solutions, show a substantial decay, preferably rapidly and effectively, of their initial wet strength such that the used sanitary tissue product effectively flushes thus mitigating clogging of sewage systems and/or septic tanks.